A complete gaming industry is composed of three branches including lottery, guessing contests targeting on people or animals, and casinos. More than 100 countries and regions around the world have legitimized the gaming industry and try to regulate it through revenue policies.

Currently, along with the issuance of "welfare lottery", guessing contests targeting on soccer matches have appeared in China, but running casinos is still unlawful.

"Eroticism, Gambling and Narcotic" are "three evils" that China firmly opposes to. What on earth is the gaming industry, a social problem, or an industrial one?

According to Wang Xuehong, the executive superintendent of China Center for Lottery Studies, Peking University, also China's first Doctor holder in the gaming management: "China's gaming industry has already virtually legitimized since the State Council granted the Ministry of Civil Administration to issue welfare lottery in 1987."

Beginning from China's first lottery issued in 1987 to this day, the issuance record has repeatedly hit new peaks. Reported by Xinhua News agency, China's lottery sale has maintained a two-digit increase from 1992 to 2003. In 2003, China's lottery sale broke the unprecedented peak of RMB40 billion yuan. China's welfare lottery sale realized RMB22.6 billion yuan in 2004, with a 13 percent year-on-year increase.

But comparing to the annual outflow of gambling capitals worth of RMB600 billion yuan, China's annual lottery sale is just a "tiny oddment". "The government should work over and consider further opening up, i.e. to translate non-governmental social games and some underground private lotteries into gaming modes the government can control." Said Wang Xuehong.

Due to the fact that there is still no government-licensed regular horse racing or casinos, China is almost surrounded by gambling stadiums when looking around its neighboring countries and regions. Quite a few programs of China's citizens traveling abroad are touring around local gambling stadiums to enjoy pleasures in gambling. Besides, private gambling and private lottery are salable in the mainland, overrunning particularly in regions like Guangdong, Hainan and Yunan.

A research report released by Professor Zeng Zhonglu of Maocao Polytechnic Institute indicates that, there is at least a lottery market of RMB100 billion yuan but the market potential is obviously far from being fully exploited. With the income of China's citizens increasing, the lottery market will follow in and expand continuously. But there are numerous problems in the development of current domestic lottery, including unsound law-there is no Lottery Law till today, and a lagged situation in personnel training and research, and faulty work in marketing & sales, promotion& publication.

Possible social risks solicited by the development of the gaming industry are no doubt the foremost problems for China's decision makers to consider. It's because the gaming industry itself can't create wealth and is simply a kind of recreation game. Once the society life comes down with the "addition of gambling", a series of social problems might come out and such social risks will affect the development of China's economy in another aspect. Therefore, it's estimable of the outflow of gambling capitals but once completely opening up the gaming industry, the social risks brought by it might be inestimable.

But basing on a good many of positive effects on the development of the economy brought by the gaming industry, it's possible that China fully opens up its gaming industry in the mid or long run, with its GNP increasing and the quality of its national citizens improving. (China Business News)